Red Bank Batlefield for Barb Solem

Sunday, November 15, 2026 - my friend Barb Solem, well known author of books on Pine Lands historic places like Batsto and Atsion asked me this morning for some information on Red Bank Battlefield because for some years, I was a volunteer docent there. This is what I remember, for Barb:

Both Ann and James were members of the Woodbury Friends Meeting on Broad Street in Woodbury and their graves are on the street side of the bank of the front lawn.

Like so many families during the Revolutionary War, the Coopers were divided in loyalties. Most Quakers were staunchly neutral, but John Cooper was a political activist during the Revolutionary War which got him disowned by the Society of Friends which has always been deeply Pacifist.

Whatever their political standing most people got caught up in the Revolutionary War especially in South Jersey, the "cockpit of the Revolution" and the Whitalls were a perfect example. Because their plantation was on the Delaware River, it was confiscated by the Continental forces during the battle for control of the Delaware River. The British needed to bring ships up the river to supply their troops holding the City of Philadelphia, but the river was guarded by a fort on each side: Fort Mifflin on the Philadelphia side and Fort Mercer on the Whitall plantation property overlooking the river on the New Jersey side kept the British ships at bay.

The Continental forces had built a more or less in-ground fort with uprooted trees for a fencing around the walls. It was defended by about 300 Continental soldiers some of whom were African American sodliers of the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island troops. The British were using thousands of mercenary troops from the Hesse Cassel region of Germany to bolster their own forces, and they were so intent on destroying Fort Mercer that they sent about 2000 of these war hardened soldiers via Clement's Bridge Road to take the fort on October 22nd, 1777.

The fort was undermanned and the defenders had to group up in one part of the fort when attacked by the Hessians who were under the leadership of a rumored to be arrogant aristocrat named Count Von Donop. It is said that his low opinion of the colonial forces led him to be hasty in his attack and instead of waiting for the cannons, he sent his soldiers in a direct attack. As the Hessians struggled over the fascine surrounding the fort, the colonial soldiers cut them down. Eventually it was a rout with the Hessians withdrawing leaving several hundred wounded and dying on the field.

the soldiers they carried away died enroute and were buried in several small grave sites along the way such as on a small hilltop in Glendora. The continental forces were far more fortunate and suffered few casualties. Many of the wounded Hessians were taken to the Woodbury Friends Meeting house to be cared for. Those who died there were refused burial on the site and they are buried in a little known cemetery called the Strangers' Burial Ground on Caulfield Avenue in Deptford.

Eventually the property returned to the Whitall family and they resumed their peaceful farm life. Ann and James had nine children and lived long lives. Ann was said to have died from the yellow fever epidemic that hit the Philadelpha area in around 1793.

The Whitall House and grunds host both huse tours and batlefield tours and you can check for the schedule. In December they hold candlelight tours of the house.

Recent excavations held by the archaeology department of Monmouth College in cooperation with Red Bank Battlefield discovered the remains of nearly 12 Hessians on the grounds of the historic site.

wrightj45@yahoo.com